juliewatt's Photo Stream

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Took the day off work - went Edinburgh festival

Andy found a great deal on the train - we could go from Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverly together for £18 return (if we pretended to go to Musselburgh - which required a change at Edinburgh Waverly), compared to paying £16 return each if we had just picked direct treturns to Edinburgh. So there is a handy tip if you are planning to catch the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh. Alternate cheap travel from Glasgow to Edinburgh can be booked with megabus and if booked far enough in advance you can pay just £1.

Before we headed for the Pleasance, we had a quick lunch at David Bann a vegetarian restaurant and it was really nice menu. We eat there every time we are going to something at the Pleasance - it has become a bit of a tradition. Andy made a slightly better choice than i did for main course - his noodles were tasty, while my chick pea fritter was spicy.

Then we headed up the hill from the restaurant to the Pleasance and had a great afternoon at the courtyard and in the shows we had booked. We had purchased tickets but because a lot of the shows were in preview, some were giving away tickets for free.

There was supposed to be free wifi in the courtyard sponsored by Spotlight, but I couldn't get connected with my itouch.

We had planned a while in advance and bought tickets for 4 performances before the new online ticket service broke down:
  1. Steven Berkoff's "On the Waterfront" which played at the Pleasance Grand.
  2. Lucy and Des show off with Des Clarke and Lucy Porter - played at the Pleasance
  3. Tim Vine Punslinger- at the Pleasance
  4. Nina Conti Evolution- at the Pleasance

Reviews of the shows we saw:

I felt the "On the waterfront" was a bit long in the first half but that the pace quickened in the second half. I sat next to the director without realising when i first took my seat. Andy thought that was quite funny. It is a good one to see if you can spare the time.

I didn't enjoy the Lucy Porter and Des Clarke show as much as I enjoyed his own show last year. I felt a bit cheated this year - thought i was going to see a show with just Des and Lucy, but they padded out their show with 2 additional special guest performances and I didn't think Lucy and Des's show had taken them much time to prepare.

Andy and I saw Tim Vine show a few years back when he was on same bill as Peter Kay, so i was already expecting to enjoy his show this year and i wasn't disappointed - his comedy is a whole lot of puns which leads to a whole lot of laughter and fun. It really made me and a lot of others in the audience chuckle. You'll need to pay attention to catch them all though - he is very quick witted.

Finally we saw Nina Conti doing a ventriloquist act. I have seen a few good ventriloquist acts before - 1 in Edinburgh and 1 in Las Vegas, and 1 very special guy online and I didn't enjoy her show as much as i enjoyed the others. I thought she swore too much and was just too crude for my taste, but some in the audience seemed to enjoy the show.

Below is a pic taken from one of last times Andy and I were visiting Edinburgh and you can view more of our Edinburgh photos at:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4547&l=2f0d3&id=1140579716





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